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G1L\NT OR GREELEY P 



v^' 



SPEECH OF S. S. COX, 



OF NEW-YORK CITY, 



ON THE ISSUES OF THE 



Presidential C'ampaign 

OF 1872. 



'• There are winds that are sometimes loud and unquiet, and yet, with all the trouble 
tliey give us, we owe great part of our health to tlieni. There may be fresh gales of assert- 
ing liberty without turning into such storms of hurricane as that the State sliouUl i-uu any 
liazard of being cast away by them." — Lord Halifax. 

'• If thou must needs have thy revenge on thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his 
bones, heap coals of fire on his head, and enjoy it. To forgive your enemies is a charming 
way of revenge, laying your enemies at your feet under sorrow, shame, and i-epentance, 
leaving your foes your friends and solicitously inclined to grateful retaliations Common 
forcible ways make not an end of evil, but leave hatred and malice behind them. An ene- 
my thus reconciled is little to be trusted, as wanting the foundation of love and ( harit}\ and 
but for a time restrained by disadvantage or inability."" — Sir Thomas Rrowxe. 




NEW- YORK: X^ 

S. W. GREEN, PRINTER, 16 AND 18 JACOB STREET. 

1872. 5^ 






1 



/ 






SPEECH OF S. S. COX. 



At a meeting of the Hickory Club of the Fifteenth Ward of 
New-York City, on August SOth, 1872, Judge Spencer, jore- 
siding, introduced Mr. Cox to his Constituents, v;hen he spoke 
(IS follov)s : 

Gentlemen and Ladies : 

"Unhappy is tliat nation whicli can not redeem itself." Tliis 
was the language of the eminent ex-Attorney-General Hoar, of 
Massachusetts, in bidding the Japanese, at Boston, take instruc- 
tion from our land. It is just and philosophical. Happy shall 
Ave be if we are enabled this fixU to follow not only his advice, 
but the sacred injunction: "Redeeming the time, because the 
days are evil." 

Need I prove that we have fallen upon evil days, that our time 
needs redemption ? 

I am not an indiscriminate praiser of the time past, even in our 
own histor)^ ; but I admire the government, in its beautiful pro- 
portions and divisions, which our honored ancestry built. They 
built wiser than they knew. What other polity could have with- 
stood the shock of civil conflict and the demoralization of ad- 
ministration since its termination ? If one of the revered archi- 
tects of our system could appear from his tomb, would he not 
point with more severity than did "buried Denmark" at the 
present rottenness in the State ? Where is the old simplicity and 
purity? Are not the teachings of frugality of the great men of 
even a quarter of a century ago, habitually disregarded ? The war 
is responsible for much reckless and unconscionable conduct. It 
is the canker Avhich follows war. The insane greed for wealth, 
the enormous growth of capital, the ill-gotten and even well-got- 
ten wealth, public debts and private speculations, shoddy display 
and superficial fashion, monopolizing corporations and family 
greed — the desire to shine in the calcium glare of the present 



feverish round of social and political junketing — tliese are the 
evidences of a rooted malady, for which the White House and the 
Cottage by the Sea are no more responsible than is effect respon- 
sible for cause. 

I will not say that this would have been otherwise had the 
Democratic Party, under similar circumstances, given the rule to 
manners and men. Yet it is not without pride that we point to 
the days when an austere simplicity crowned the characters of 
Democrats of the Jefferson and Jackson type. We are not a 
peculiar people. Rome had her Cato ; but she had her Domitian 
also. The austerity of the one is in great contrast with the fri- 
volity of the other. 

MORAL AND POLITICAL KEVOLUTIOX. 

I come not here to make either an elegy or a eulogy over 
Democracy or the past. If the Democracy is dead, or if its 
works live honorably, it is no time now, with our eyes to the 
future, and in the light of coming reform, to sing either the one, 
or speak the other. The time and men have changed ; parties and 
opinions have changed. It is because there is a necessity for the 
common weal that compels such changes. No one can deny that 
we are undergoing a great moral and political reaction. The 
magnitude of the movement may be denied ; but as in other ages, 
so in this, there is a class insensible to the revolution. It is none 
the less a revolution because it does not breathe of sulphur and 
carnage, or swagger with a sword knot and epaulet. In tins 
revolution bloody laurels are not to be won ; civil chaplets only 
are to be gathered. Before this progressive revolution, platforms 
and conventions are as straws on the rail track. Before its edict, 
the "protest" of all the Treasury and its Secretary against clos- 
ing the chasm of hate and strife, is like the shriek of an octave 
flute in a "jubilee" of thunder ! 

Seven years ago the war ended. During this period tlie Demo- 
cratic Party has been reproached for its pertinacious hold of its 
old tenets. It was not the party of advance. It saw no object 
till it was passed. These reproaches, whether well or ill-founded 
were made by Republicans, anxious to cooperate with the three 
million of Democrats in a great and honest purpose. Republi- 
cans who saw irresponsible administration, no accountability, no 
earnest sense of duty or devotion to principle, in their own party, 
thought we were running in ancient ruts — groping in the crypts 



•of the past. Tliey said to us, " Our party has had its day. It 
has done its work. It abolislied shivery. Its object is attained. 
Its day of final reckoning on other matters lias come ! Will you 
help us ?" You know the response. You know the results. Cin- 
cinnati joined witli Baltimore, and the revolution began. The 
Democracy may not believe that its party work is altogether 
done, or that its party bears on its face the image of immor- 
tality ; but they feel that as a great advancing and a great re- 
■serve force — compacted as one, and not counting the inevitable 
stragglers — they have made amends for many backward and lag- 
gard steps, even with the most prejudiced of their enemies, by 
the acceptance of the Cincinnati movement and the nomination 
of Mr. Greeley ! 

THE NEW ALLIANCE. 

It is not necessary for me to discuss the question whether the 
Democracy have undergone a political metempsychosis. Suppose 
they have been swallowed by Cincinnati — suppose they have sent 
their old ideas away on a pilgrimage to atone for their past bad- 
ness — or suppose, on the other hand, that the party exists still and 
accepts new forms of belief^ — the question remains, Are these 
■new forms the best for the present and future ? No other 
question is relevant. No sound reasoner will debate aught else. 
But it is said the sincerity of these new convictions are ques- 
tioned. If the alleged change in our party is simply that of Pro- 
teus, it is a change of shape and not of heart. If that be so, 
then I admit the party must be tried on its old merits or demerits. 
Then no regard must be paid to any new alliance, even for a good 
object, Mr. Dawes is concerned because Liberal Republicans act 
with the Democracy. He said, " If they labor with it, they labor 
for it ; and the question is, Avhich is to control ?" He thought 
the Democrats would. But this is aside from the issue, and he 
meant it should be. The question is not — how to reconcile the 
alliance of free-trade and protection ; nor how the unrepentant 
rebel can, without a lie, sujjport Mr. Greeley. The question of 
the tariff, like others to be named, is in abeyance, by the nature 
and terms of the alliance ; and the assumption that the rebel is 
unrepentant is a gratuitous and unfounded assumption. So that 
when Mr. Dawes cleverly says that the union between Republicans 
and Democrats for certain pronounced objects is a monster with 
two bodies and one head, ho fails to see tlie elegant and just pro- 
portion of its one head and body. If the Cincinnati platform 



with its demands for reform is right and is adopted at Baltimore^ 
I fail to see two heads or two bodies. It is a phalanx, if you 
please, of two divisions, under one commander, and marching 
direct to the overthrow of personal administration and to the 
rescue of civic virtue and public liberty ! It may require more 
heroism for tlie Republican to act with his former enemy ; but 
Avhen he acts for the right, and supports the Democratic nominee 
at Baltimore, he is a better Democrat tlian him who only obeys 
the authority of his party convention ; and tlie Democrat who 
supports his old opponent is a better Republican than him who 
sujDports the man whose policy undermines the republic ! 

Suppose this does imply change in Republican and Democrat. 
If that change works for good administration, civil practices, and 
would restore affection between the late warring elements, who 
shall be reluctant to accej^t such change ? 

DEMOCFwVTIC RECORD. 

Suppose in the past we did our best, and failed, shall the ghost of 
the dead forever haunt the house we have unsubstantially reared in 
the air ? I have acted with the Democracy since a boy. I love its 
memories and revere its past. It is hard to believe that our best 
exertions are ruins, our energies wasted. To me there was nothing 
so grand as the contest of Jefferson against Federalism, of Madi- 
son against English arrogance, of Jackson against capital, or that 
which was made under Douglas, backed by his 1,375,157 voters in 
1860, to keep this country one and indivisible. These patriotic 
struggles against faction and zealotry are now like the dreams of 
life's morning, compared with the terrible passions of the life and 
death-struggle which followed after 1860. But these dreams are 
cherished, even by our opponents, as something to be proud of. 
How often do our Republican friends boast of selecting an old 
Democrat ? Have we as Democrats given up our memories in 
making new associations ? Because the leaves fall, the birds for- 
get to sing, the sunny skies become darkened, is our history but 
a breath-stain on a mirror, or moonlight on the water ? Is the in- 
fluence of our glorious recollections unsubstantial and fleeting? 
Never from my lip shall reproaches fall upon that past we once 
cherished as Democrats when bound up by our party ties in one 
bundle of national life, with our brethren of every section ! Nor 
is it necessary, in forming new relations, that such incentives 
should be obliterated. 



Some of those most .anxious for the preservation of Democracy 
have not been with it so long as some of us, who have given an 
iindeviating life to its fortunes. If we can say now of our party 

that 

" Much must be borne which it is hard to bear, 
Much given away which it were sweet to keep," 

those of our party who are less faithful might pardon the infir- 
mity of those who, in endeavoring to save the countiy now, are 
willing to make some sacrifices of pride and self-love. 

But I am done with sentiment. I have no repining at our 
present condition. As a party, accepting the clasp of honest 
men of another party, we become with them a cohort, which dares 
to progress and change. 

The very sun itself, the source of light and heat, is chang- 
ing even the hues of its light. Ever consuming, ever relumining, 
its substances are in perpetual change. The analysis of stars 
by the spectroscope, the processes of star-gauging and star- 
motions, show that there may be a diminution or increase to the 
great fire and lamp of our system through the lapse of time. So 
it is with parties and opinions. The orb of our political system 
may undergo mutation and temporary eclipse, but it remains to 
us still, and under better conditions. It is strengthened and 
brightened even by the changes it undergoes. 

CHARGES OF INCONSISTENCY. 

Why should Democrats be charged with desertion of their 
tenets and truths because they recognize accomplished facts ? 
facts accomplished, it may be, without their sanction or adminis- 
tration ? Is it not permitted our party to advance ? Are we to 
be forever charged as Bourbons and boors, who sit in the car and 
see only what is passed ? The tliree amendments, enlarged suf- 
frage and new elements of mutual regard between the sections, 
are these to be ignored by our party, because our regards are 
fixed on our own proud monuments ? or our opponents taunt us 
Avith inconsistency in accepting the irrevocable ? 

When a great reform took place in England by the repeal of 
the Corn Laws, the I3arty of Cobden, Bright, Villiers, and Elliott 
received the fresh accession of Peel, Graham, and Gladstone. 
Read the great debate. It is full of heroic defiance of all charges 
■of inconsistency. 



6 

Lord George Bentinck had read Sir James Graham's former 
speeches against repeal. In Hansard's Debates, (3d sec, vol. 85., 
p, 161,) while expressing his charity for those who were consis- 
tently wrong, he said, 

" When I made up my mind, under a deep sense of public duty, to act in 
concert with my right honorable friend at the liead of the government, and, 
upon considerations of public necessity, as it appeared to me, to present this 
measure to Parliament, as a servant of the crown, I anticipated, and I fore- 
saw with pain, all that has taken place on tlie present occasion with reference 
to the conduct of honorable members on this side of the House. I counted the 
cost of the sacrifice which necessity and sense of duty compelled me to make. 
I was prepared, and 1 am prepared on public grounds, regardless of all taunts, 
regardless of all obloquy which may be heaped upon me, acting from a deep 
sense of what is due to the public, to set aside all personal considerations, 
and join in tlie advocacy of a measure which, in my conscience, I believe to 
be necessary for the public good. ... I have often expressed a hope, and I 
now again with unaflfected sincerity express it, that the day will soon come 
when these gentlemen will see that we have not betrayed them, and admit 
that the course which we have taken is that which was best calculated to 
promote their interests, and those of the country at large." 

To-day, in all the realm of Great Britain, there is no one to 
doubt the wisdom of that wise reform. 

The great premier. Sir Robert Peel, was not less defiant or 
prophetic on the 22d January, 1846, (Hansard, 3d sec, vol. 83, 
p. 69 :) 

" I will not withhold the liomage which is due to the progress of reason 
and to truth, by denying that my opinions on the subject of protection have 
undergone a change. Whether holding a private station, or placed in a pub- 
lic one, I will assert the privilege of yielding to the force of argument and 
conviction, and acting upon the results of enlarged experience. It may be 
supposed that there is something humiliating in making such admissions ; 
sir, I feel no such humiliation. I have not so much confidence in the capa- 
city of man, to determine what is right or wrong intuitively, as to make me 
feel abashed at admitting that I have been in error. I should feel humilia- 
tion if, having modified or changed my opinions, I declined to acknowledge 
the change for fear of incurring the imputation of inconsistency. The ques- 
tion is whether the facts are sufficient to account for the change, and the 
motives for it are pure and disinterested. Nothing could be more base on 
the part of a public man, than to protect himself from danger by pretending 
a change of opinion ; or more inconsistent with the duty he owes to his sove- 
reign and country, than if, seeing reason to alter his course, he forbore to 
make the alteration by the fear of being taunted with a charge of inconsis- 
tency. The real question, as I have said, is whether the motives for the 
modification of opinion are sufficient and sincere. 

"My opinions have been modified by the experience of the last three 



years. I have the means and opportunity of comparing the results of periods 
of abundance and low prices. I have carefully watched the effects of the one 
system and of the other — first, of the policy we have been steadily pursuing 
for some years, namely, the removal of protection from domestic industry ; 
and next, of the policy which the friends of protection recommend. I have 
also had an opportunity of marking from day to day the effect upon great 
social interests of freedom of trade and comparative abundance. I have not 
failed to note the results of preceding years, and to contrast them with the 
results of the last thi'ee years ; and I am led to the conclusion that the main 
grounds of public policy on which protection has been defended are not 
tenable ; at least I can not maintain them." 

Irrespective of the inerils of that vexed controversy, one can 
not but admire tlie heroic quality which was exhibited in Eng- 
land by lier great men in 1846. Xor is England alone. What 
has led the fathers of the Republican Party — the Chases, Adamses, 
Blairs, TrumbuUs, Schurzes, Bankses, and Greeleys — to join hands 
with their inveterate opponents exce])t that proud consciousness 
of just and patriotic motive, which knew no fear when taunted 
with a charge of inconsistency ! 

Nor does such a union deny to each and all the full liberty 
to act on matters not in the agreement. Minor objects are 
ignored with a view to essential and great objects. Those 
greater objects can only be attained by concession and union. 
The autonomy of our States, the return to "home rule," the 
reconciliation of sections, and the preservation of constitutional 
limits in administration and legislation are greater than fiscal 
affairs or party consistency. Government itself can not be framed 
without such a philosophy. Are individual opinions and party 
views to impede the onroUing car of progress and reform ? 
When good administration is demanded by an indignant and 
outraged people, great efforts ^olll be made to overcome the 
varieties of thought and action on subordinate matters. How 
else can we rescue the nation from peril ? How else can a nation 
reform itself when the " days are evil" ? 

DEMOCRATIC STRENGTH AND GENEROSITY, 

In pursuing this philosophy, and in the hour of our increasing 
strength, the Democracy have shown a magnanimity unknown to 
its sordid and selfish opponents. With a reasonable hope of 
success at this election, it elects to be more patriotic than ])artisan. 
Lest its enemy should again attain control — for fear the en- 
croachments uj)on personal liberty, federal concord, and local 



government should be continued for another term of the present 
incumbent — the Democracy have resolved to make its host the 
reserve of a band of liberal and honest Republicans, They do 
this without any intent or with the efiect to destroy its own 
honox-ed and compact organization. That organization exists in 
every town, county, city, and State. It was before us in the 
grand convocation of all tlie States at Baltimore. It is vital with 
the forces of tradition, history, reason, patriotism, and freedom; 
and no acceptance of new and true principles, and no nomination 
of an old-time opponent can weaken those forces. 

In the hour of our increasing strength, we make this sacrifice 
of party pride. Since Mr. Lincoln was elected by about thirty 
per cent of the 4,680,193 votes in 1860, we have sufiered two 
Presidential disasters. Yet General McClellan received within 
five per cent of the majority of the popular vote in 1864; and 
Horatio Seymour, in 1868, forty-seven per cent of the 5,716,788. 
Since that time, we have doubled our representation in the fede- 
ral Congress. In this hour of liope and growth, to make it beyond 
possibility of failure, we raise our banner with no strange device, 
but place it in the hands of one wlio has hitherto been a stranger 
to its folds. 

Yet I will not deny there is a certain pride in consistent thought 
and conduct. The youth who always coquettes seldom weds. It 
shows infirmity to change suddenly, even for good reasons ; and 
something worse, for selfish motives. Wiiile ever a Democrat from 
earliest years ; while ever voting and aiding the union of these 
States upon the basis of the constitution and the rights of the 
States ; while beginning with Douglas and, if you please, ending 
with Greeley, our last Democratic national nominee, I have 
never lost that love, partly inherited, but ever hopeful and faith- 
ful, for the Democracy, — I am not insensible to the fact that good 
men have left my party and bad men have come to it; that good 
men have returned to it again and bad men have left it, and that 
in the mutations of popular governments these changes may, do, 
and must ensue. Many, nay, most of them, are made upon the 
purest love of country and desire for its welfare. It requires 
something of heroic efibrt to do as Peel and Graham did in Eng- 
land in 1846, when they reversed a lifetime of politics to give 
England the clieap loaf — a free breakfast, diimer, and supper- 
table ! 

Had there been in England then a Ivrical doctor, like our own 



Dr. Holmes, he might have sung aboiit Whig and Tory who 
joined in the great economic reform, the same Immorous jingle he 
sang to the Japanese the other day : 

" To be sure tliere is always a bit of row. 
When we choose our tycoon, and especially now ; 
For things are so mixed, how's a fellow to know, 
What party he's of, and what vote he shall throw. 
White's getting so black, and black's getting so white, 
Bepublic — rat, Dem — ican, can't get 'em right !" 

_ Perhaps the most conspicuoi;s zany to-day in American poli- 
tics, if indeed he survives the fool-killer, is the man who would 
desert the Liberal Republican platform, simply because the Dem- 
ocrats accepted it. A man who believes the truth because his 
pastor says it is true, is as much of a heretic, said Milton, as he 
who believes a falsehood. He who rejects the truth because 
others accept it — well, there is no name to express the imbecility 
of his intellect. When Horace Greeley says water runs down 
hill, it runs just so ; but if Horatio Seymour acquiesces in the 
idea, it is awful — it runs up ! 

This is almost equal to another reason urged against the new 
movement. It is this : " Republicans should not accept the move- 
ment, because former rebels and Democrats not rebels join in it." 
That is to say, "Douglas men and Breckinridge men, men of 
revolt and men of allegiance, accept the verdict of Peace as the 
fiat of Force. Therefore" — the non sequitur is thus propounded to 
Republicans — " let us all join in fighting over again the battles 
of force on platform and in Congress." 

Is this sensible ? Wliat need of saltpetre in Congress? Even in 
the tariff it is a fraud. What need of guns in the cabinet ? Even 
in the War Department, and its contracts, it is not — good. Where 
is the necessity of the red hand to draft the enactments of delib- 
eration? It is a curious illustration of political logic. Think of 
it ! Peace give us guns and dragoons ! It is about as sensi- 
ble as that civil service reform which gives us Casey inside and 
syndicates outside the Treasury; or that administration which 
allows Leet to levy on merchants to liberalize commerce, and 
Stocking to make contracts to save cartman competition ; or that 
allows Scott and Reed to riiin States to illustrate executive 
purity and local government ; and Grant to pay off tlie national 
debt at Long Branch, with Boutwell at Grafton, with t)ie taxes 
of people who are not reveling at ease, but producing the means 
wherewith to pay. 



10 

But it is said, sometimes with good temper and sometimes 
sneeringly, that we are inconsistent; that we phiy an ignoble 
part. Inconsistent to take tlie truths of a decent and noble pol- 
icy in the Cincinnati platform ! Inconsistent in selecting a candi- 
date dedicated to them lieart and soul I Inconsistent because we 
love our land, the form and structure of our government, and the 
genius that should guide us in our great future ! If it be incon- 
sistent to be devoted and patriotic, let there be more of it, and 
the abuses of power will stop and the blessings of liberty willi 
be ours ! 

" TU QUOQUE !" 

The worst that can be said of us is what history has written of 
every party — it has made a coalition with a portion of its oppo- 
nents. The virtue or vice of such a coalescence consists in its 
purpose. It is nothing new upon the rolls of party action, to find 
the most incongruous elements and names associated to promote 
one great object. Again, I say, why, Avhen seeking good ends 
by the union of good men of both parties, are we especially to be 
taunted with insincere or unworthy charges. Does it lie in the 
mouth of Mr. Morton, who disfavored negro suffrage during the 
war, to taunt Tiiomas Jefferson Randolph for accepting it in 
1872 ? Does it become General Cameron, General Butler, old 
Democrats, who disfavored in 1856 the interference with slavery 
in the States, to taunt us with accepting the amendment abolish- 
ing it? Is it forgotten, that in 1861 — not by me, I am sure, for 
I was in Congress voting for every compromise to secure union 
and avert war — that Governor Corwin's Committee reported, as a 
measure of conciliation, an amendment to the Constitution forever 
prohibiting the "people" to abolish slavery? I voted for it, as a 
measure of healing and union, thougli I asserted the right of the 
people to amend the Constitution or to amend its amendments at 
their sovereign will. Who voted with me? Colfax, Logan, 
Sickles, McPherson, Maynard, and a host of other men now de- 
voted to Grant. Who is General Dix, that the convention which 
nominated him should make charges of changes, insincere and 
unpatriotic ? A Democrat, a Republican, a Johnson man, a Grant 
man, a what is it, boxing every part of the political compass ? 
And there is the acute lawyer and gentleman, Mr. Tremain, 
Where was he but a few years ; nay, a few months ago? Fight- 
ing against coercing secession. He said then that Mr. ]Mur- 
phy's appointment was not " nice statesmanship," and denounced 



11 

the rottenness of tlie administration he is now bound to uphold, 
as the nominee "at large" for Congress. 

I think it does not become any one belonging to so mosaic a 
party to be anxious about Democratic consistency. The changes 
which have taken place in our own politics are enough to startle 
the timid, thougli to the philosophic mind they are not new reve- 
lations of human experience. I can remember in my tirst Con- 
gress, in 1857, that even Joshua R. Giddings, when I pressed 
him in debate on negro suffrage, refused to declare for it. The 
formation of the Republican Party was strong in 1 860, because it 
had a plank in its platform in favor of local government. Here 
it is: 

4. " That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and espe- 
cially the rights of each State to order and control its own domestic institu- 
tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance 
of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric de- 
pends, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any 
State or Territory, no matter under what pretest, as among the greatest of 
crimes. " 

Who now adlieres to this? Governor Blair, of Michigan; 
Governor Gratz Brown, of Missouri ; Governor Fenton,'^Xew- 
York, and Governor Chamberlain, of Maine; Montgomery^^ir, 
Governor Chase, Judge Trumbull, and the rest; or the inconse- 
quential men wlio arraign them for its betrayal ? During the vi- 
cissitudes of the war, under new conditions made by the war, 
Northern non-coercionists became soldiers of the Federal army, 
and Union men became secessionists. Even Quakers became 
belligerents, and John Brown's body, though mouldering, fought 
to the deatli in song for the triumph of law against rebellion. 
If his body were now marching on earth with Wendell Phillips 
and General Grant, it would be, I suppose, against Greeley, 
flanked by Mosby as a warrior and Ackerman and Settle as civi- 
lians. ]\rany who in 1861 took up the old flag, like Colonel T^^lysses 
Grant, of the 21st Illinois, were ready to riddle it with bullets if 
the object of the war was perverted to abolitionism. The same gal- 
lant oflicer, when he was properly promoted to be a general, con- 
sidered the attempt to force negro sutlrage on the States as an 
" unwise attempt." Is it necessary to impute insincerity to Gen- 
eral Grant for his changes of opinion ? When in Congress, I 
helped to draft the " Border State " and Crittenden resolutions, 
defining the object of the war, I never dreamed then that I could 



12 

ever vote moi-e money and men — after the war, by the persistency 
of the South, had been prolonged and changed into an anti- 
slavery crusade as its chief impulse ; but I did vote money and 
men. I believed with Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Weed that, with or 
without slavery, the Union — the Union was the great central idea. 
Certainly when I ran against Horace Greeley for the honors of the 
Sixth Congressional District of Xew-York City, I did not dream 
that his efforts for amnesty, the paramount thought with me, 
would ever make him forget for a time " protection." He refers 
the question to the people in their districts voting and in Congress 
assembled. Who will declare that Horace Greeley, at Niagara, 
seeking peace with Union, under Mr. Lincoln's advice and counte- 
nance, was not an honorable friend of our government? He who 
denies it, must consider General Grant a slave-driver, for his 
order of August 11th, 1862, at Corinth, Mississippi, against entic- 
ing slaves from their masters. Do you complain of the theories 
of politicians ? If so, what becomes of Mr. Beecher's idea, of " no 
State except in the Union" — of the denunciation of Thaddeus 
Stevens's State suicide, afterwards accepted by the reconstruction- 
ists; or, if in the domain of economy, what becomes of Mr. 
Boutwell's idea that competition and publicity should be given 
in placing the public loan, and where would Cooke, Clews & Co. 
be if Mr. Boutwell were consistent? Or perhaps Mr. Boutwell 
might be allowed to make a new statement of tlie payment of the 
public debt, so as to confirm his statement in Congress that 
Johnson had paid off 33 per cent more per annum than himself. 
Where would be Mr. Dawes, who joined with me in keeping out 
bogus Congressmen at the beginning of the war, and filling the 
places at once with representatives without reconstruction ? 

Must Saul forever remain Saul, even after the scales have fallen 
from his sight ? May not the persecutor Saul become the Chris- 
tian Apostle Paul, without reproach? 

But, above all, it does not become Senator Conkling, Avho, but 
n year or so ago, long after Mr. Greeley's record was the subject 
of general knowledge and vituperative comments, voted for him as 
a candidate for governor of New-York, to raise the question on Mr. 
Greeley's patriotic endeavors before that time. As a lawyer would 
say, he is estopped. Others may not be. But theRepublican Party 
of New-York State, who made him their banner-bearer for comp- 
troller since the war, are forever estopped to complain of his- 
war record. Most especially are my honored Republican constitu- 



13 

ents forever estopped to i:)lead Mr, Greeley's incompetence for 
federal position, by reason of his conduct previous to 1870; for 
they withdrew two of their unblemished champions to commit 
him to the sacrificial knife in the Sixth District. 

It is nothing new to find a great name, or the envy of it, a 
stumbling-block to great results. When I read the one great 
idea of the Cincinnati platform, local self-government, on which 
depends the preservation of our government, I forgot the name of 
Horace Greeley. He was no bugaboo to frighten me from devo- 
tion to this Democratic canon. It is said that the Pharisees be- 
came partial to Christ Avhen he defended one of their doctrines 
against the Sadducees. Without irreverence in the comparison, 
it is natural that Democracy should indorse the Cincinnati move- 
ment, when its capital thought is enshrined on the Democratic 
altar. 

The charge of inconsistency can not come gracefully from a 
party whose President is elected in 1868 to ring down the cur- 
tain over the sanguinary drama of civil war. For he does it by 
the suspension of habeas corpus and bills of force against electors 
and committees. 

CAUSES FOK THE XEW ALLIANCE. 

Fellow-citizens, it is not an ordinary object that produces 
such an amalgam as we have considered. We have had coali- 
tions in our politics as in other days and countries. It was 
only the other day that the Republican President of France 
found himself deserted by the " Right," He sought and was 
at once accepted by the Left. He preserved the republic. It is 
no ordinary crisis that calls out such alliances. What has been 
the occasion and cause for them this year in the United States ? 
General maladministration ? Is it neglect of salutary legisla- 
tion ? I answer, both. I reserve the latter subject for a 
startling catalogue of laches on the part of the majority, 
when I return my commission to my constituents. Is it be- 
cause the aggressions of the executive, through his military 
and mercenary surroundings, have awakened the Republican 
leaders to a sense of their responsibility for foisting incivism 
upon the land in the person of our military President ? Some- 
thing of that, too. Is it absence from duty, nepotism, and per- 
sonal government ? Not altogether. I lay little stress on a 
presidential drink, or a presidential official relative. Casey may 



14 

have his receipt of customs nt Orleans; Cramer may go where 
Hamlet's father went in Copenhagen ; Leet may lift his loot and 
leave ; Chorpenning may be sent to penitential exile with Creswell 
and his law firm ; but these matters are as dust in the balance 
compared with the monstrosities of executive and legislative con- 
duct, involving public liberty and civil virtue. 

The better men of the Republican Party care less for these 
personal affairs, as the Democracy do, than for the aggressions 
which, beginning for war purposes, continue in peace for parti- 
san and personal purposes, and which permanently threaten 
the structure and genius of our government. 

All other reasons against this administration are temporary and 
trivial evils, to be tolerated and remedied. Whether it be 
through negligence or culpability, whether by blunder or crime, 
the fact remains, that there is a profound conviction that there 
are " fearful and formidable evils which have grown out of the 
misuse of official patronage," (I quote from my honored friend, 
Mr. Parke Godwin, in his unadopted platform,) " demoralizing, 
as it has, our whole political life, and turning the contests of 
parties, which should be a struggle for the ascendency of princi- 
ples, into a vulgar, ferocious, and corrupt scramble for the spoils 
of success." Still there is something more radically wrong, 
needing heroic treatment. We need reform in the civil service 
of a wider sweep and loftier purpose. The great danger is that 
which springs from forgetting the principle of Mr. Godwin. To 
quote again his own apt language, that we are not " a consoli- 
dated nation, nor yet a mere confederacy, but a composite demo- 
cratic republic, in which the supremacy of the Union, the 
independence of the separate States, and the liberty of the 
individual are alike requisite and indispensable, each in its place, 
to the harmonious working of the whole." 

THE DANGERS TO OUR GOVERNMENT. 

On this indictment, I arraign the administration. This does 
not imply the destruction of the Union only ; but of those arches 
of personal and State independence on which it reposes. If it be 
not the willful, then it is the ignorant and careless disregard of 
the very genius of our polity. When tliis is our settled policy, 
there is no Union worth having. There is no country but a chaotic^ 
fortuitous, and temporary adhesion of States, whose liberties, 
fixed in organic laws, and even reserved and nursed by states- 



15 

men, courts, and people, are imperilled by the present misgovern- 
ment. 

DESPOTISJr AXD GIFTS. 

In view of this overwhelming issue, it is idle to discuss other 
questions of a personal or family nature. I have neither the 
inclination nor the skill to deal seriously with such matters. Un- 
happily, they are too current in our politics. Among them are 
two matters I do not wish seriously to discuss — first, the question 
of electing General Grant in the interest of himself and family ; 
and second, his gift-taking. As to the first, I think we might 
allow the General to help his family somewhat, always provided 
the example does not harm and the family are competent. There 
is something akin to virtue in his helping his own. Blood is 
thicker than water; and who wants the government watered as 
bad railroad people water stocks ! Besides, has not Mr. Conk- 
ling, or some other base maligner of the President, said that 
Grant had only appointed twenty-three relations out of our forty 
millions of people! But on this point I boldly answer in his 
defense, that he did liis best. He appointed all the relations ot 
the male sex he had ; and is it not unreasonable to demand that 
he should " go back" on his nepotic, avuncular, and paternal 
relatives? How contemptible is the conduct of Gratz Brown, 
who only appointed his cousin, Frank Blair's little boy, to a 
clerkship in Missouri ! With such a large family as the Blairs 
and Browns to select from, and with such a competent and smart 
fixmily too, the governor is worse than an infidel I A rumor 
obtained some time ago, that Mr. Casey, the brotlier-in-law, was 
to be dismissed from the coUectorship at Xew-Orleans. A cry of 
horror arose among the people. What! Dismiss in time of 
profound peace, with his own hand, the brother-in-law of our 
■chief soldier ! Talk about Abraham's insanity of sacrificing his 
own son, or the Roman vanity wliich condemned to death the 
best beloved. No such weakness afllicts our President. Mr. 
Casey remains to collect customs, and to kidnap legisla- 
tures ! My impression is, that it is not of much consequence in 
Louisiana whether the Legislature is at sea or in its seats. 

But it is charged that General Grant has been enriched by 
presents. That is a question between the giver and the gifted. 
If he appoints to office because of the gift, that is another ques- 
tion. But even then, does he not show a sense of gratitude ? Is 
,not this a beautiful trait? Simple Andrew Joluison refused a 



16 

carriage and li;iriiess. He had been reading up in our early 
republican history. What did Johnson know about the im- 
provements in administration since Washington ? I dismiss all 
such matters to cross-roads and cross people. They are trivial 
and temporary. The press and public opinion may correct the 
President, if wrong, and doubtless, if reelected, he will dismiss 
his favorites, staif, and relatives. So of other matters of admin- 
istration. There is constant complaint of military and other 
rings. It is suspected that custom-house folk have been gouging 
here and there ; that swashed and bucklered parasites have been 
rioting in mercantile gains, to the annoyance of commerce. But 
these are musquitoes. Let them buzz and nip. We can put up 
a bar to that. Indeed, Mr. Bout well came near doing it, on the 
general order business, at my request in ]869. But something 
interfered, for which see correspondence and Mr. Boutwell. 

There are charges rife of frauds and jobs of all kinds, and there 
is much proof. I am not fond of such discussions, though you 
will remember the Black Friday investigation, which fell to me, 
did not have a salutary result. I can not tell now fully why I 
could not get my witnesses, though I appealed to the committee 
to summon somebody else besides Fisk, Gould, Corbin, and Co. 
They refused, by voting down ni}^ resolution. 

MERCENARY rOLITICS. 

These are mere mercenary matters. I wish there Avere less of 
them ; for then we might have more hope of correction. You have 
read General Farnsworth's statement about stone quarries and 
the connection of public officers with such contracts. You know 
military aids to the President disburse money by the million in 
Washington for public grounds. You have read how our jolly 
sea-dog, Secretary Robeson, pays money out on Secor and other 
claims, already settled, by some new construction of law. You 
know how ships and arms are sold, without law, appropriations, 
or accountability. What the Post-Office Department and Miv 
Earle, Attorney, have tried to do in the Chorpenning case, is 
already known. The attempts of an unscrupulous lobby to raise 
the contract price for railroading the mails, and a plan too suc- 
cessful I fear ; what attempts have been made to take great lots 
of land, valuable wharfage and islands, without compensation, by 
the President, when Secretary of War, and by Congress, for the 
benefit of corporations and banks ; what the Custom-Houses have 



17 

become under this administration, and what the treasury, lorever 
manipulated by scheming bankers wlio job and dicker on our cre- 
dit, to the discredit of the government; wliat scIrmucs \ny 
hid in the St. Domingo job ; all these and more, are they not fully 
understood by the people ? and if so, there can be no question 
of the doom of the administration which fosters or j^ermits and 
of the Congress which fails to fei-ret them out for their ex])Osure 
and correction. 

It is not my inclination to deal with such politics. I would 
not do it, if only for the honor of the country for whose union the 
sword of General Grant was drawn. It may be better for Re- 
publicans themselves to describe the situation of the President. 
Govei-nor Blair, of Michigan, has said that it is impossible for 
General Grant, surrounded as he is, to reform such abuses. Pie 
says, 

" Surrounded by an army of bold, brazen corruptiouists, lie is powerless as 
was Samson in the hands of Delilah. Nay, he flies from Washington like a 
beaten chief, with his horses and hounds, to Long Branch, to solace the lazy 
hours in the society of Tom JNIurphy and others such as he, while he leaves 
the Creswells and Robesons to their carnival of plunder. I do not here and 
now renew the terrific indictment of Sumner against him. That great states- 
man and pure patriot has spoken in his own way from a soul wrung with 
grief at the horrible demoralization of the public service, and he has said none 
too much. His great name and irreproachable character is a sufficient gua- 
rantee for every word he may utter. Of true Republicanism he was a foundei 
and life-time supporter. Scorned now by office-hunting demagogues, he is 
still the best beloved of the people." 

I hope that this is overdrawn, even as pictured by Mr. Blair 
and Mr. Sumner. If true, then what Junius once said of an 
Englisli ministry may be applied to our Cabinet and its chief, 

" Away they go ; one retires to his country-house, another is engaged at a 
horse-race ; and as to their country, they leave her like a cast-oft" mistres.s to 
perish under the diseases they have given her." 

God help a coimtry thus govern.ed ! Listen to another liepub- 
lican ! General Farnsworth, of Illinois, in his letter of August 
6th, says, 

" 1 have been a member of Congress thirteen years, and truth compels me 
to say that, during that period, the most wasteful and extravagant use of the 
public money and the least responsibility of those who have disbursed, have 
been during the present administration." 
2 



18 



CINCINNATI PLATFORM ANALYZED. 

It is not tliese matters which made me give my adhesion to the 
Cincinnati platform. It is a valuable code of honest politics. It 
is well worth analysis and consideration. All its nine points lead 
to one result. The rights acquired tlirough the war should be 
respected, and those lost restored. Along with this, is the decla- 
ration against the subversion of the internal polity of the States, 
This is coupled with civil reform. The other points as to the 
sacredness of the public lands and the public credit, together with 
a welcome to all, irrespective of past associations, and a crowning 
resolution for the soldiers, make up a short creed of patriotic policy. 
Through it shines, like a sun, the Christian and humanizing doc- 
trine of brotherly love. Every thought in this campaign will 
open upon this doctrine as a heavenly door upon golden lunges 
turning ! In these ideas of reconciliation is not only union, but 
the sentiment which alone makes it possible, and keeps it perma- 
nent. 

PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM. 

Compare this with tJje Philadelphia platform. All that is worth 
having in it is a frigid appreciation and worship of a soldier. 
He is lauded as to his administration, in such strain as to make 
the platform a satire where it is not a falsehood. That platform 
ostentatiously exalts civil service. One need but read the sneer- 
ing speeches of Butler and tlie inconsistent action of Grant, to 
know whether this V)e not botli a satire and a falsehood on both 
Congress and President. Its denunciation of land grants, passed 
by Republican Congresses and all signed by the Pi-esident, if not 
simple impudence, is a plea of guilty. It has a cry for the aboli- 
tion of franking, which it never abolished. It brags of an Indian 
policy, which never figiits the Indians into peace or civilizes them ; 
a policy three times as expensive in 1S71 as in 1860. Its demand 
for more bounty to soldiers is the cheap claptraj^of a party which 
liad the power, and did not use it, to "extend" the boasted boon. 
It butters words about the labor and woman question, like those 
about taxation and the debt. They are simply words to be con- 
strued by legislative neglect and executive indifference. Its 
affirmation about restoring shipping, in some future, when it has 
failed for seven years by reason of its Chinese policy, is only to 
be paralleled by the ironic hilarity of its devotion to citizens 
abroad, and matters of a foreign nature like the conspicuous Ala- 



bainii t-iihire! Tlie iiulorseiiieiit of two persons, llu' one a sohluT 
and the otber a Know-Nothing, is but a specimen of bero-worslii]), 
which stands in gloomy contrast with the enlightened policies 
and fraternal liberalities of the Cincinnati platform. But the cli- 
max of its audacity is attained, wlien it congratulates the nation 
on Republican devotion to amnesty. 



AMNESTY. 



Here I come to the leading point again. All efforts are in vain 
either to reform taxation or glorify our name abroad, either to 
honor the achievements of the war or make effective the new or- 
der under the amendments, unless the country is made strong and 
great by mutual love. To argue with the South about ordinary 
reforms, situated as it is, is to argue with a man about the compo- 
nents of caloric, when his house is a-fire ! This platform wherein 
it says the Republicans have favored amnesty is "organized 
lying." The Glohe shows that during seven years but a few of 
the Republicans voted for the general amnesty bills; and only 
lately did General Grant recommend or the Congress pass, the 
partial and imperfect bill they now pretend to claim as creditable 
to their generous foresight. I can show you forty instances of 
such hateful neglect or positive opposition. It was not until the 
threatened outbreak in the Republican ranks, that the President 
in his message recommended exceptional relief Whenever De- 
mocrats urged it, it was tabled or hooted. The Republican por- 
tion of the Ku-Klux Committee did recommend, at the end of its 
report, both a further enforcement of the rigors of the previous 
Ku-Klux law, and as its accompaniment — Amnesty ! If the South 
were bad enough for one, were they good enough for the other? 
They endeavored to hitch saint and sinner together, heaven and 
hell. Their claim to this anodyne as their specific, this balm to be 
poured into wounds wliich they themselves have kept green and 
bleeding, is only significant of desperation and hypocrisy. They 
present an olive-branch in one hand, and a sword with the other ; 
the open palm and clinched fist ; the kiss of peace and the dirk 
of revenge under the fifth rib. Tliey confess, by offering amnesty, 
the wisdom of the policy of kindness, and with the other make 
hateful faces beneath their visor of affection. Sepulchres! with- 
out the decency of outside whitewash ! 

Ml-. Speaker Blaine feels the force of this. He rushes to reply to 
Mr. Sumner. He is not the man to be made a pigtiiy ol', even 



20 

beside his companion giant, C'haiies Sumner. But Mr. Blaine, 
with all his strength, does his memory and his tact and party 
wrong, when he tries to re-write the harsh measures of his party 
with a quill from the dove. He must remember that no amnesty 
in its fullness came from him or his ; that amnesty in its odious 
partiality came only from his antagonist General Butler, and that 
this and otlier measures were bills of penalty and not of grace. 
On the 15th of December, ISTO, I characterized one of these 
bills for "full and general grace, amnesty, and oblivion," as grace 
whicli was grudging, amnesty which was exceptional, and obli- 
vion full of memories ; a stormful Lethe ; Hamlet, with the Prince 
and all out but the grave-digger ! There has been no bill presented 
by the j^arty in power, or passed, except the one which this de- 
scription beBts ! 

General bills were proposed. I proposed a bill myself It was 
received by Mr, Blaine and his party with strenuous opposition ; 
because, as he once phrased it, it would not do to antagonize the 
remaining Avar feeling of New-England. 

Again Mr. Blaine, the best spokesman of Republicanism, (I will 
not say for him, of Grantism,) has apprehended that the new Con- 
gress elected under tlie candidature of Mr. Greeley, will fail to 
carry out by legislation the amendments. Oh ! no, my honored 
Speaker! the constitution, propria vigore, has saved you the 
anxiety of possible laws, not passed in pursuance with those 
amendments. With a tacile Supreme Court and an amended 
Constitution, accepted by all parties, you need not distress your 
heart, that Congress is so omnii)Otent, even under the tattoo of 
your loud gavel, as to be able to overrule the amendments ! The 
acceptance of those amendments in good taith by the Democracy, 
is what was not expected by you. But there they are accepted ; 
and if there be good-will and healing in their clauses, this country 
will enjoy it so far as Democracy is concerned. 

REPRESSION, NOT GRACE. 

The main fault of the Republican policy has been that its mea- 
sures have been repressive and not reconciliative. Its repeal of 
habeas corpus, and its military efforts against citizen and voter, 
are in direct violation of that peace so lavishly promised ; while 
its local governments, the product of reconstruction and sus- 
tained by General Grant, are the odium of the time and the pro- 
vocation to secret and open disaffection. 



21 

The laws passed to coerce elections by penalties and federal 
force are so much out of the path of a pacific polity that elections 
fail to be a choice or a relief; while the wholesome and ancient 
English law and custom which remove the garrison from the 
vicinity of the voting place are disregarded in the interest of 
party. The old and sensible provisions, that election judges and 
officers onght to be independent of the executive power, are also 
disregarded. All our elections, together witli the qualifications 
of electors, are or ought to be fixed under State laws and con- 
ducted by local authority. But we know tliat, at the closing hours 
of the past session, it was attempted to force through Congress 
an amendment of the enforcement election law, so as to apply it 
to all places, instead of as now to cities of 20,000 people. The 
present law is an invasion of the constitution. Its extension as 
attempted would have been an usurpation on the part of legisla- 
ture and executive to overawe and alarm the people in certain 
States. It would have provoked revolt ; and when provoked, 
the result would have been heralded as an excuse for further 
military interference. 

DICTATORSHIP. 

It was a part of the plan to extend these repressive laws 
through this year. Already a dictatorship has been created in 
a law which happily was limited to the end of the past session. 
But that was attempted to be extended, so as to cover the presi- 
dential election. That law laid the liberties of the people at the 
feet of the President. At his discretion, and in any State or 
county, he could suspend habeas corpus ; and in spite too of the 
constitutional provision " that the writ shall not be suspended, 
except where in case of rebellion or invasion the public safety re- 
quires it." Ay, in spite, too, of the ever-living spirit of freedom, 
which made the great writ, as Macaulay said, the strongest 
curb ever legislation imposed on tyranny. It is this advance 
toward absolute, personal govenmient which has most alarmed 
the nation. What ! Give this devotee of military power — 
this high officer whose messages are orders, and whose mes- 
sengers are orderlies, whose every move seems to be inspired 
by barracks habits and camp life — give him, of all men, power 
to dispose of States and persons, to close courts, imprison at 
will, appoint military delegates to Congress, and suspend all 
law but his own ? Have we come to this, that disturbances 
in nine counties in the one State of South-Carolina, which alone 



22 

have been thoiiniit woitliy of the exercise of" sucli dict:itonal 
powers, should he the occasion or the cause of such enormous 
powers, upturning all rights of person and propert}' ? That 
for these disturbances, the country should be shingled over 
with military V We have indeed lost all the ancient sjjirit 
and landmarks if such attempts be not repressed by the peo- 
people. I hold in mv hand a paper of Boston. Its color indi- 
cates its age. It is dated March r2th, 1770. See these four 
coffins ! They are tlie symbol of a/ree people, with death to the 
military officiousness which first provoked and then shot down 
the citizens of Boston. Did Boston rise ? Read the proceed- 
ings ! Public meetings and armed indignation everywhere — the 
forerunner of independence Tlie military were compelled to 
withdraw from the sight of that people. So it will be in Novem- 
ber when a descendant of that stock will assure local govern- 
ment, and social and legal amnesty. 

KL'-KLUX PRETi:XTS FOR FORCE. 

I need not recite to you the pretexts for these audacious at- 
tempts to chain and throttle the people. Ku-Klux was the cry. 
It was squawked so loudly that a committee was raised to ascei"- 
tain its extent. Xo Democrat favored such klans or societies. I 
was upon that committee, and my name is to tlie minority report. 
"While such local disturbances could and should be properly and 
legally disposed of by '' home rule," instead of federal interfer- 
ence, still it was thought l)est to examine the matter. The 
result was a vast mass of printed matter. It is too unwieldy to 
use. Some things appear from it : that there was an unqualified 
admission that thei-e were no disorders in Virginia, Florida, Ar- 
kansas, Texas, and Louisiana, more than one lialf the South ; and 
consequently no concerted outrage. As to the other States, there 
was not perfect accord of judgment ; but it was agreed generally 
that the disturbances and secrecy were limited to a few localities 
in certain portions of other Southern States. Thus limited, and 
denounced by both parties, these outrages were made the pretext 
of a general military dictatorship over all the land. 

CAUSES OF OUTRAGE. 

I thought it would be well to inquire into the causes of such 
limited discontent. Accordingly T oflered a resolution to ascer- 
tain the character of the administrations in the Southern States. 



23 

I especially wanted to know authoritatively tlie debts and taxes 
whicli had been hea^jed upon tiiese people under their reconstruct- 
ed governments. At first my resolution was voted down. Fi- 
nally it was passed. It was no easj- task to ascertain from inte- 
rested and unwilling sources the facts so necessary to ascertain 
the causes of discontent. You have, however, in the press and 
from speakers, the result of my resolution and of our investiga- 
tion. The debts of the Southern States before the war were 
176,415,890. At present, they are $291,626,015. The total debt 
of tiie other and richer twenty-seven States is only 8203,872,552. 
This is commentary enough. 

As to taxes, go to Arkansas, with two thirds of her acres un- 
der the hammer for delinquent taxes ; or to South-Carolina, 
where of the four millions collected this year, being ten times the 
amount before the war, not a cent remains. It is estimated that 
in that State alone sixteen millions have gone to fatten its black 
and white harpies. Nothing in shape of canal or railroad, asy- 
lum or school-house, remains to show for it; not even the few 
sand-hills and swamps, bought in by State commissioners, which 
do not sell cheaply at small interest and long pay. The public 
institutions are closed, all but the penitentiary. There seemed to 
be a lasting need for that. 

Is it necessary for me to show how such things became possi- 
ble and are yet continued ? First, tlie bayonet was at the throat 
of the white race ; second, their suftrage was fraudulent, forced, 
and uncultured. The intelligence of the State was discarded. 
The elements of fraud and force, by vote and sword, have been 
upheld for party pui-poses by this administration. Are you sur- 
prised, therefore, when you read of secret and open disorders ? Do 
you not, while denouncing them, feel like removing their cause ? 

Do you wonder that estates find no purchasers ? That immi- 
gration shrinks away from the South ? That bitterness and 
uncertainty prevail? Do you wonder that taxes have increased 
ten times? That Southern bonds are a drug in the market? 
That the people lose their spirit between the millstones of adven- 
turous rapacity and ignorant suffrage ? That enterprise dies, 
and the number of tilled acres gradually diminish? With all 
tliese evidences of decay, fraud, and misrule, do you wonder that, 
to seek relief from this organized bedevilment and blighting 
curse, to have Ku-Kluxing stopped and military rule displaced, 
the great bulk of the Southern people demanded that a fair 



24 

Republican should, for his appreciation of tlieir condition, be made 
their elected saviour ? Or that the Democracy, faithful to civil 
order and mutual symp.athy, accepted Horace Greeley ? Or that 
a great body of one party, and the whole of another, should visit 
the indifference of the federal executive to the maladministration 
of affairs South with their patriotic vengeance, while lifting up 
above all party tiie white, unseamed banner of peace and love ? 
It is not so much now that we can reach the fleeing Bullocks, 
nor evict the Scotts, Davises, Holdens, and Claytons who have 
reveled in plunder. It is not now that we can reform these pecu- 
liar and pernicious practices which find their example in higher 
quarters. It is too late for the Orrs of South-Carolina to endea- 
vor to save General Grant by his bolt from the scoundrels who 
have ravaged that State. Nor do I care how many presidential 
relatives hold office. Nor so much that we may economize the 
expenses of the administration; or make a better tarift"; or teach 
Mr. Dawes better figures as to the comparative expenses of 1800 
and 18V1, so as at least to correct him to the amount of |52,468,- 
000. Nor is it so much to show how good a government may be 
made with the honest men of both parties at work. It is not so 
much to condemn the corruptions of this administration in the 
Treasury, Post-Office Department, or Navy. It is not that we 
will investigate these matters in full time. It is not to stay the 
tide of luxury and extravagance, which has Washington for its 
source and illustration. It is not so much to tear from the body 
of the government the bloated leeches called the syndicate, who, 
in placing our loan, got at the least one and a half millions more 
tlian the law allowed, for placing on the market the sum of 
$200,000,000 of the five per cents. It is not one but all of these 
objects to be attained by that reform which is only possible 
under other political conditions. But it is more than these. The 
election of the Liberal Democratic candidate means this : Take 
the bayonet away; clean out the swarms which infest the offices 
of the South; no more suspension of liabeas corpus; no dictator; 
but above all, as the panacea and result, mutual good-will and 
amnesty, and the restoration of the forni and spirit of our system 
of government. 

These are the main features of our policy, and these the signs 
of its success. This end is partially attained by the simple dis- 
ruption of party ties ; nay, by the very candidature, if not the 
success, of Greeley and Brown. 



25 



VICTORY OF THE REPUBLIC, XOT PARTY. 

If tlie victory be a Democratic or a Republican victory, or botli, 
let it be a victory for the republic ! I know that, to excite 
prejudice, the Republican organs, like the Times of New-York, 
declare that Mr. Greeley's victory will be a Democratic victory. 
If so, why do they propose to Democrats to desert the conven- 
tional nominee, Mr. Greeley? And why should a Democrat do 
so? It is also said that Mr. Greeley's election will inevitably 
lead to a congressional Democratic majority. If it should, and 
full amnesty would result, who should complain ? Not Demo- 
crats. 

Whether Democracy be only the "mended and frayed strand" 
of its old tissue, or the Republicans be as dry and marrowless 
as the bones of Ezekiel, is not so mu<^'h a matter, as a change in 
administration, conducted by honest and efficient men. To this 
result, the Democracy have sacrificed mucli, and will sacrilice 
more. They remember that tlieir nominee, Mr. Greeley, ever 
since Lee's surrender, has been a friend of reconciliation. They 
remember how he denounced the blockheads of the Union League, 
Avho endeavored "to base a great enduring party on the hate and 
wrath engendered by a bloody civil Avar, as no better than plant- 
ino- a colony on an iceberg which had drifted into a tropical 
ocean !" They remember tliat, while in the heat and dust of otliei- 
strifes, he has not spared tliem ; yet, in generous rivalry, he has 
endeavored with them to pursue the paths of peace. With a 
life of unusual activity, a pen of masculine vigor, a mannerism 
not at all lacking in the simplicity needed in high places — coming 
from the people as a poor and friendless but brave boy, into tlie 
heart and swirl of the great metropolis — he has left his impress 
on this country. He will, under God, impress his adminis- 
tration with sentiments mellowed by new associations, with 
charities silvered over by advancing years, and with a reverence 
for the hallowed traditions of our early national career, made 
glorious by that Democracy which has in tlie vicissitudes of 
parties become his ally in that progress, and a sliarer in the 
common blessings and glories which his administration will 
bestow. 

In conclusion, the climax of those blessings will come to our 
■ntry, because they will be inspired by the doctrine of reconci- 
•1. It is the principle of loving and being loved, of lov- 
3 



26 

iiicr Ilim because He tirst loved us ; of p.irdon wliicli is without 
reserve, tliat which forgives its enemy and prays for those wlio 
despitefully use you; tlie doctrine not of the Chi-istian only, but 
of the Hebraic, and even heathen religions; the doctrine of peace 
on earth and oood--\vill to men, chnnted by the angelic choir upon 
the advent of the Prince of Peace. Whoso fights a party thus 
inspired, fights with a straw against a champion cased in ada- 
mantine. AVe know whence our strength cometli in this strug- 
gle. It is not from below. The refusal to clasp hands is not 
from on high. We draw our light from the mountain which is 
so " set apart " that its name is known only from the great 
sermon of our j\[aster upon its summit. Not from Ararat, 
which lifted its head first above the flood ; not from Sinai, 
the unwasting monument of the law given to Israel ; not from 
Horeb, where even the Almighty covered the human face which 
miglit look on his brightness, with his fearful hand; not Tabor, 
where the wondrous scene of the transformation was enacted ; 
not from Pisgah, where Closes made his touching farewell to the 
people he had led; not from Channel, where the prayer of Elijah 
was answered in fire; not Lebanon, whose cedars are the beauty 
of the earth ; nor from Zion, Avhose story is tlie very pathos of 
the soul of desolation and song ; not the Mount of Olives, 
wdiich saw the agony of the Saviour; nor Calvary, at whose great 
tragedy nature shuddered and hid her face in gloom ; but from 
tliat nameless mount whose sermon gave to man the sweet code 
of Love, Gentleness, and Forgiveness. He who spake as never 
man spake said, " Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy : But I say unto 
you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to 
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully iise 
you, and persecute you ; That ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on tlie 
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the 
unjust." 

From this we draw our teaching. God and time will help 
us to carry it into our political ethics. Upon those who 2^rotest 
against it, and who refuse forgiveness to others, my only curse 
is, that they may know Avhat it is to be forgiven ; and my prayer 
is, that God may forgive them, for they know not what they do.^. 

the 



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